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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1979-11-21, Page 2WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1979 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. Published'each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario By McLean Bros. Publishers Limited Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Pat Langlois - Advertising WIWI L$ oirrartfu. BLUE RIBBON AWARD 1979 Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $10.00 a tear. Others $20.00 a Year. Single Copies 25 cents each. IIITAlL111111110 len gBrussels Post For the better People have long complained about the unfairness of the local tax system but now at last some of that system may be straightening itself out. With the introduction of the Section 186 tax assessment which is to bring overassessments down, and underassessments up, tax portions should now be on a more even keel. And although some new systems are introduced right into legislation without any concern shown to people's feelings on the matter, the Section 86 assessment is a different matter. Open houses will be held, so that assessors can explain how the new assessments for different • properties were derived, and the taxpayer if not satisfied with explanations, will still be able to appeal her or his assessment. Of course the revised assessment is not going to go over well with everyone involved, but it seems to be a much fairer system. A lot of municipalities in Huron County seem to agree as many of them are going ahead with the new system. Thanks for the response Demand for the Christmas cookbooks has been high. It's obvious that a lot of people have appreciated the effort that went into them, as many compliments have been received at all three newspaper offices. And people are gathering a number of the books up to send to relatives as Christmas presents. It's not often that newspapers get complimented for the work they've done, but judging from the response to the cookbooks;staff here knows it was one effort that was worthwhile and appreciated. And thanks once again to the people who submitted the recipes. It's good when the newspaper and the community can work together to accomplish something positive. .r; •F 9.41..-,. 14 Sugar and spice By Bill Smiley Two or three years ago, I swore I'd never write another column about Remembrance Day. I'd milked every emotion, flattened every cliche, and I thought perhaps it was time to let it fade away, as old soldiers never do. However, I reckoned without our vice- principal. Each year, for the past three or four, as Remembrance Day approaches, he sidles up and wonders "if I could have a minute of your time?" That means he wants something. If he wanted to bawl me out, he'd probably say, "Mr. Smiley, I'd like to see you in my office at 3:45." When I reported at that time, he'd likely give me the blast, in front of witnesses, and I'd tell him to go to hell, or shove it where the sun never.shines, or something equally vivacious and vulgar. Vice-principals do not easily upset old fighter pilots. But when Dave give me the old soft soap and asks if I could do something about a Remembrance Day programme for the school, I get all soft and gooey and limply agree. When I joined the high school staff, there were plenty of veterans of World War II. A bomber pilot or two, a navigator, a radar man, some air force ex-technicians, and a rabble of former navy and army types, Nowadays, I'M just about the oldest veteran On the staff. so I'm stuck with the Remembrance Day hokum. The oldest veteran is a German, who Night in the North Africa campaign, was wounded, and spelt the rest of the war in a prison camp it. the States. It would hardly do to have him talking to the students about "our sacrifices in two great world wars." He might get carried away and say something like, "If it hadn't been for that maniac, Hitler, we would have kicked the stuffing out of you." So I'm stuck with it. For a few years, we had a full period programme, with the students making it up. They were awful. Full of folk songs, like, "Where have all the soldiers gone?", and the local Legion marching around on the stage of the cafetorium getting all tangled up in their flags, and the reading of a List of the Fallen. For the kids, it was a period off school, and a sort of bewilderment about what these crazy adults had been up to, in a time of which they knew nothing. So we gradually cut it down. The Last Post was eliminated. I gave such an anti-war talk at one of these sessions that even the students were startled. For the last two Years, I've been asked to write a two or three minute "message" about Remembrance Day, full of meaning, poignancy and sentiment. I'd never give an assignment like that to a student. It would be like asking them to give a summary of the Bible in 200 words. However, I'm going to do it again this year, because I am soft in the head, or something. Let us hope that next year, the thing will be reduced to an announcement "We will now honor our war dead with one minute's silence. On the sound of the bleep, shut up for one minute. Then go to your •regular classes." Here is a sample' of what I write. It is spoken into a mike by a student who doesn't know how to use a microphone and has a bad cold. This is last year'S bit. "When you are yOUng, life is forever. Why did they ever decide to make 1979 the International Year of the Child? This "celebration" has come at a time in history when children have never before been so worthless in the eyes of society. Sure we treat our children better today than in the past. We don't make children go to work in the mines or the factories for 14-hour days to be sure. We don't condone parents taking children to the woodshed and flailing away with anything handy when they feel discipline is required. Our schools stress understanding, not intimid- ation these days. So thinking back to the distant days of our childhood past we may envy the kids of today's generation. Yet children growing up in the 1970's must be able to gather an uneasy feeling after a while that they are the excess baggage of our western society. Treatment of children in the old days may not have been kind but at least children were a desired commodity. Even if for only economic terms parents wanted children because they could work on the farm, could earn a few pennies extra working those horrible hours in factories under conditions children shouldn't have been exposed to. In contrast children today are looked at as something that stands in the way of economic prosperity. For a young couple getting married the decision is often between having a new gadget-filled house and a new gadget-filled car and having children. Children are a problem. Having children means certain time will be lost from work while the wife is in the advanced stages of pregnancy. The decision must either be made then whether one of the partners is going to stay home to look after the children or if both will continue to work and look for someone else to look after the child. If the former course is chosen then a large portion of the family income is lost. If daycare is chosen then there is still a high expense of paying for it. But above all that there's just the bother of it all. I mean it's pretty hard to go out to the disco three times a week if you've got kids at home. It cramps your style as a world traveller if you have to worry about either travelling with the kids or, finding some relatives to dump them on. And so in our hedonistic lifestyle of the 1970's children are definitely unfashion- able. There is no room for children in the world of the young swinging professional couple. This group has turned an economic and social decision into a moral one as well. When you are old, Death sits grinning and nodding at your elbow." "Hundreds of thousands of young Cana- dians sneered at that old witch, Death, and offered their most precious possessions, themselves, to the bullets and the shrapnel, the mortars and the cannon. They didn't say to themselves, "I'm going to die so that the students of Blank Secondary School can have gravy on their french fries." "They didn't say much of anything: They just went off to fight against something they thought was evil. "Most of them were just kids, two or three years older than you are. They had the same hang-ups you have: bad marks in math; frustrated love; uncertainty about the future. "Maybe they weren't too bright. Maybe they should have said, 'I ain't gonna get killed in some stupid war over in Europe.' "Maybe. But they went. And they were killed, in their thousands. So that you can have gravy on your french fries. And a lot of other things you take for granted. "Most of us don't want to leave the world without making some little mark on it. Every human being is a precious thing. Whatever you do, you will leave something of yourself behind, even if it is only dust. "Those young fellows who were killed in France and Holland and Italy didn't have much chance of leaving anything behind. "But they left a memory. Once a year, on Remembrance Day, we take a silent moment to think about those laughing boys - and most of them were boys - who went across the ocean so that we could have freedom of speech, open elections, letters to the editor, and gravy on outr french fries," What in e World am I going to Write this ye th ar? Isn't the world already overcrowded? they ask. Mustn't we do our part to control the population explosion? Isn't it thoughtless to bring a child into this world where they could be killed by atomic warfare, poisoned by acid rain or die from breathing too much leaked chlorine gas? Surely as they grow older the children of the 70's must sense the low pribrity I hey and their friends have in this hedonistic society. Those who argue for abortion and other birth control measures say it is wrong to bring an unwanted child into this world and yet it seems we have a whole generation of unwanted children in the world; unwanted not by their parents, but society in general. Take a look at children's favourite learning tool for instance: television. After watching hours of television featuring young, unattached swingers from Mork and Mind y to Charlie's Angels the kids must begin to wonder about their own place in society. Why are there no children there? To those old enough to know that television is designed for maximum expo- sure to the audience that spends the most money, the current trend in television is easily understood. Demographic research shows that the people with the most money to spend are the young people without families. They're not interested in children either in their home or on television and thus the kids disappear. Gone are the days when the family with 2.3 kids was the most lucrative market for television advertisers; the days when Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver and My Three Sons were the ultimate in programming. And so we have International Year of the Child declared in this era when the child is anything but something to celebrate in our society. It seems like giving a party to which nobody comes. While the year may emphasize the plight of children in other parts of the world where food, clothing, shelter are the problems, it has done nothing for the situation here in North America. Instead we deal with the problems of enrollment declines in schools and the other headaches that our lack of importance of children has brought. And the question must be asked: who will feed the hungry mouths of the third world in another generation when we have such a small working population in the prosperous west? And who will look after today's swingers in their old age? Brownies plan concert The mothers of Brussels Brownies had a meting November 14 with 11 members present. Brownies made plans for the Christmas concert at the Brussels Public School on December 3rd at 8 p.m. Everyone is welcome and a silver collection will be accepted at the door. This is to aid in the support of the BrowniesiadOpted Foster Child. Her name is Prima Sandi, eight years old and she lives in. Bolivia, South America, As well as support of the child the Brownies help the whole family of eight Plans were also made for several get- S togetherS in December. These include a special Christmas present to the village of Brussels. This is to take place on the evening of DeceMber 20th in the form of Caroling on a hay Wagon around town. Behind the scenes by Keith Roulston Do we really care about kids? Remembering again Hi Ne Bo 24: De wa wit Mr to Jug 18: 3rc als 60; wit wit Mc 24! Co Qu Wi Ne Cla Ad 23 20 Su Ba Te P. To n. e fo w Ji H nE hi b( vi fa 1 in r. P sr ti • c